Peanut Butter Bridal Shower Cake

Halloween is a week away and I don't have a costume. Over the last few years I've waited until the last moment to decide what to be. Unfortunately, by that point, the stores are closed and I'm stuck digging through my closet trying to pull something together. It isn't until say....November...that I come up with a great costume idea. But of course, I never write it down.

It wasn't until today, while I was ringing up groceries at Hannaford, that I realized why I'm always so anti-Halloween. 

I'm bitter. Not only am I not allowed to go door to door for free chocolate and candy, I no longer get to host super-cool Halloween parties like I did when I was little. My parents were awesome. My dad built a haunted house and we made a life-sized Frankenstein for it. My dad also made a life-sized (super scary!) witch out of wood and fabric that's even scared him when he wasn't prepared. My mom would make green milk and a tombstone cake with a bloody hand coming out of it. We'd wrap each other up with toilet paper to make mummies, and would bob for apples. And I could never forget the goodie bags. My mom would buy so many treats and toys from Oriental Trading Company that I'm pretty sure you can still find the pumpkin erasers and spider rings hiding around our house. They're such great memories that it's hard for me to think of Halloween differently. It's that whole growing-up thing...

Anyway...that's my story, and now I just have to suck it up and have some grown up fun.

Speaking of grown up, I was asked to make a cake for a bachelorette party last weekend. This cake was a peanut butter cake with chocolate frosting. I used Paula Dean's PB cake recipe, following some of the commenter's directions and adding more peanut butter, 1/4 cup butter, and no shortening (blah! shortening....). For the frosting I tried a new chocolate frosting recipe, and used Ghiradelli cocoa. I'm still amazed at how cocoa brands have such an impact on the taste of the final product. Finally, for the decorative icing, I used Wilton's chocolate buttercream recipe, again, using butter instead of shortening.

I added peanut butter as a surprise to the middle layer, followed by the new chocolate frosting. The flowers were made out of fondant. If you're looking for a rich cake and a quick sugar high then this is definitely the right cake.